SIU applies to extend lottery corruption probe

SIU applies to extend lottery corruption probe

Blog Article

A decision around the Exclusive Investigation Unit’s (SIU) application to amend the 2020 Presidential Proclamation is expected by the tip of February.
The original proclamation only authorized the SIU to investigate grants produced by the Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) in between one January 2014 and seven November 2020.
The SIU is looking for a mandate to analyze lottery-funded initiatives that fall outdoors that interval.
What's more, it wishes to investigate fraud and corruption linked to the NLC’s procurement of companies, which was not protected hihuay under the original 2020 proclamation.
The NLC has had new management and board considering the fact that 2022 and is assisting the SIU with its investigations.
A decision on the application through the Specific Investigating Device (SIU) for the amendment of the 2020 Presidential Proclamation mandating it to research corruption involving the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) and its workers, is predicted by the tip of the thirty day period.

This was confirmed via the Division of Justice’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi. “The enthusiasm was submitted into the Division late very last year which is being ready for submission into the Minister to advise the authorisation with the Modification to your proclamation. A call might be envisioned by the top of February 2025,” Masibi told GroundUp.

The first proclamation only authorized the SIU to research grants created by the NLC amongst 1 January 2014 and 7 November 2020. This remaining the SIU hamstrung when investigating fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s procurement of services and appointment of service vendors, which ran to hundreds of millions of rand.

In its commitment to amend the proclamation, the SIU is trying to get a mandate letting it to investigate lottery-funded jobs that drop outside the interval coated by the first proclamation, Because the NLC’s corruption ongoing once the proclamation was gazetted.

Although the SIU couldn’t instantly investigate procurement, because the initial proclamation did not incorporate it, it seconded two of its officers into the NLC to assist it in its investigations into dodgy procurement.

GroundUp has also discovered the SIU as well as NLC recently signed a brand new letter of engagement extending the relationship among the two entities by a calendar year. Their deal expired at the end of December 2024.

The NLC’s probe, which includes the aid with the SIU’s seconded officials and several damning investigations by impartial audit organizations, means the SIU will likely have a leap start out inside a probe into procurement If your proclamation is prolonged.

The NLC as well as the SIU have also been inundated with suggestion-offs. Many are from whistleblowers about dodgy grant and provide chain administration fraud and corruption, several of which happened following November 2020.

The 2020 proclamation contains an exception with the SIU to analyze alleged corruption that happened prior to or after the date of its publication …“but is related to, related with, incidental or ancillary to your matters … or involve exactly the same folks, entities or contracts”.

The SIU’s drive also seeks a mandate to investigate fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s source chain administration as well as the procurement of solutions.

The SIU Beforehand informed GroundUp it absolutely was investigating more than seven hundred dodgy job grants, with much more tip-offs coming in. Various NLC employees are struggling with disciplinary costs regarding their alleged involvement in dodgy procurement. Some others resigned once they ended up billed. The SIU has also described lots of All those included to your law enforcement.

In 2022 the SIU instructed Parliament’s Trade, Field and Opposition portfolio committee that it had been investigating dodgy lottery grants valued at above R1.4-billion. Last calendar year SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi advised the committee that the value of dodgy grants under investigation experienced grown to around R2-billion.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago declined to comment on the applying to extend the proclamation.

Dodgy procurement
In 2023, the Auditor-Typical instructed the NLC’s management to address “critical internal Management deficiencies identified to enhance procurement and deal administration”. This arrived once the Auditor-Basic’s NLC audit in 2021 uncovered over R23-million in irregular expenditure and R36-million in accounting problems built in previous a long time. Points worsened the subsequent yr, Along with the Auditor-Normal’s 2022 management report within the NLC revealing almost R57-million in irregular expenditure because of the contravention of source chain management laws.

Amongst the problems flagged in damning studies through the Auditor-General, and by auditors appointed because of the NLC, had been irregular expenditure on information and facts technological innovation and sky-high paying out on legal professionals. The NLC struggled to reply a written parliamentary issue about its expenditure on authorized charges, as essential documents with aspects of multimillion-rand litigation expenditure have vanished.

An additional location of concern would be the tens of a lot of rand in paying out on media and communications, that has a disproportionate amount paid out for the Sunday Globe newspaper.

Numerous rand in dodgy payments were being also designed to NLC support vendors, which includes a R498,000 payment to assistance provider Neo Consulting to research a pc hack that never occurred.

ProEthics, which recommended the NLC on ethics when the organisation was overwhelmed by rampant corruption, was also accustomed to launder payments to assistance vendors. The NLC compensated ProEthics around R28.four-million. The business, consequently, mentioned it paid out other provider suppliers about the NLC’s Recommendations — like a R1.7-million payment for a flash mob that hardly ever took place.

The findings of unbiased investigations commissioned through the NLC’s new board and executive are crucial in formulating disciplinary costs from implicated employees, including NLC firm secretary Nompumelelo Nene.

Nene is billed with alleged irregularities within the appointments of and payments to many company providers. She is additionally accused of giving “Phony or incomplete information in submissions justifying deviations from procurement processes”.